Utah's battle for No. 2 at quarterback


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SALT LAKE CITY — Senior Travis Wilson will be Utah’s starting quarterback going into fall. But the question for the University of Utah football team is who will back him up.

“There’s a pretty big gap between Travis and the next group,” co-offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said.

“Travis, right now, is clearly No. 1,” head coach Kyle Whittingham added.

Roderick said Wilson has had a good approach to spring practices and has shown his veteran ability in the four practices this year.

“He looks like a senior. That’s how quarterbacks should be after they’ve played,” Roderick said. “You invest so much in the quarterback position and generally quarterbacks that have played usually play better than quarterbacks that haven’t. It’s just a theme in football. Veteran QBs, the game just slows down for them and that’s what we expect for him.”

With Wilson having separated himself from the rest of the quarterback competition, Whittingham said the team will utilize him less in some of the drills and will not use him much in a live setting. He may take a few snaps in a live setting, but will not be hit in practice.

#Poll

“Travis is a proven commodity and there’s enough separation between Travis and the rest of the pack, so there’s no reason to put him in harms way at this point,” Whittingham said.

Behind Wilson, Utah features five quarterbacks — Kendal Thompson, Conner Manning, Brandon Cox, Chase Hansen and Donovan Isom — vying for the backup role this spring. Thompson has participated in spring camp, but is limited in live-drill work and some other drills, so as to not aggravate his season-ending injury from last fall.

Although limited, Roderick said Thompson would be the favorite to be the No. 2 guy behind Wilson, which doesn’t come as a surprise considering his role in last season’s effort, but that each of the quarterbacks still have an equal opportunity to earn the backup role.

As of Tuesday, Whittingham said the decision is mostly between Manning, Cox and Hansen, with Isom falling a behind.

“Donovan is probably a little bit behind the pack, and the other three — we’re not counting Kendal because he’s not been able to do much — are jockeying for a position right in between,” Whittingham said.


Donovan is probably a little bit behind the pack, and the other three — we're not counting Kendal because he's not been able to do much — are jockeying for a position right in between.

–Kyle Whittingham


Roderick called the competition between the three quarterbacks “tight,” with each bringing a different aspect to the game under center.

All three quarterbacks had some struggles in Utah’s first live setting, with Manning seemingly having the hardest time adjusting to the forging defense.

“He didn’t have as good a day today as it looked initially,” Whittingham said. “We’ll have to watch the film to be sure. It looked like he might have been a little off the pace, at least today.”

But Roderick said some of the struggles were likely a result of the deluge of information prior to the practice — a bunch of new plays the team hoped to run Tuesday.

“We put in a lot of new plays that were being repped for the first time and just had a lot of mistakes,” Roderick said. “That’s to be expected when we install as much as we did. We probably overloaded them a little bit today. We’ve been fairly cautious the last few days, just trying not to have too much, and today we probably gave them a little more than they can handle.”

Utah has two more practices this week, with a Friday scrimmage, giving the coaching staff more information about where players stand. Whittingham said on the first day of spring practices that he hopes to “thin the herd” after the first few weeks of practice in an effort to get a stable group of quarterbacks to work with heading into fall camp.

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